1 EC aid FERN

2 Introduction EC aid= European Community (EC) development aid. Managed by the European Commission 9.7 billion Euros in 2001 Low transparency and openess Development of environmental and social policies- behind other donors

3 Why are we interested in EC aid ? 1. Poor people depend on forests’ natural resources for survival. IP’s have specific links with forests and specific rights. Aid funds that threathen forests will undermine these people’s livelihood 2. Aid funds can threathen forests by funding directly bad forests projects, by ignoring forests and forests peoples in other aid funding: road, mining support, structural adjustment support, trade promotion, etc… 3. Civil society participation: lacking 4. Grant (tax payer) money is furthering the economic and political agenda of the EU

4 EC development policy Main objective: poverty alleviation Six focal areas:  Trade and development  Regional integration and co-operation  Macro economic policies  Transport  Food security and rural development  Institutional capacity building Environment, Human rights and Gender to be mainstreamed NGO/FERN protests EC Development Policy is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Grant money is being used to further the econominc andpolitical agenda of the EU No forest strategy exist to support integration of forests and forests peoples’ interests in programming documents

5 EC aid programming Country and Regional Strategy Papers Identify priority areas of intervention Country ownership (3 to 5 years) Civil society participation Under the umbrella of PRSPs Developed at country level and approved in Brussels Mid-term review

6 Have environment/forests issues been taken into consideration into CSPs/RSPs? Investigate 18 CSPs and RSPs in highly forested countries Main findings  Selection of focal areas  Quality of CSPs  Environment: poorly analysed and not integrated  Transport and importance of roads  Inadequate consultation with civil society  Neglect of Ips issues  Almost no funding for forests and the environment

7 What we want An implementation of EC development policy that focuses truly on poverty alleviation A programming of aid that understand that environmental integirty and sustainable management of natural resources are pre-conditions for any development Policies and programming developed and implemented only with full participation of local communities and IPs and civil society at large Policies and programming that fully respects IP’s rights Policies and programming that ensures transparency and good governance

8 EC Forest Platform There is no platform of environmental NGOs looking at development policies and programmes and their impact on forests and forests peoples

9 What is happening in other EU countries? –?–?